In the canning industry there has long been a requirement for equipment for pitting fruits of the drupe type, such as peaches. To satisfy this requirement, there have been developed various types of equipment for performing such pitting operation in general, this type of apparatus includes two gripper heads, each of which grippingly engages opposing halves of the fruit to be pitted. One type of such apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,765. While the performance of such prior art apparatus has been satisfactory in many respects, the fruit gripper head assemblies have frequently experienced difficulty in gripping the slightly irregular shapes of the fruit without applying excessive pressure that may cause bruising.